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When You Were Here

Thank You For Staying And Again...

Tuesday, 5 July 2011

Eva and her family arrived here on 29th June 2011. Although Singapore welcomed them with a blazing wave of heat on that afternoon, my friends from Spain were unfazed.

Dinner at Jumbo

I brought them home, we freshened up and then drove down to Jumbo at the Riverwalk for some seafood dinner with FaiZ and MarG in tow. After that , we took the highly recommended river tour along the Singapore River and at 11pm, ventured to Mustapha where we bought some exotic fruits home. Fruits which I now find out are also available at the la boqueria market in Barcelona!

Sri Krishnan Temple at Waterloo Street-2/7/2011

On Saturday, I played tourist too when we did a walking tour from my house to Chinatown and visited many places I didn't know exist.

Sri Krishnan Temple-Details

And for those monuments I have walked past many times, I saw them through the eyes of someone new to them and realised how much beauty I had missed while I was too busy with this and that.

It was exactly a year ago when I finished the bedroom in the Rolla House preparing for Rosanna's arrival in Singapore. And a year later, their footprints in Singapore remained firmly on our shore so much so that it was almost surreal. Like time has warped and the present met the past when I turned to Eva and said -Eva, this is Rosanna and Walter and we both stood there staring at the picture, bemused, bewildered and slightly befuddled. It was then that I felt the sudden pangs of friend-sickness and wished Rosanna was here too.

Souvenir bag from Raffles Hotel-2/7/11

Noon arrived and wesauntered past the Raffles Hotel and their ubiquitous Singapore Slings , The Mint Museum of Toys and saw the Marina Bay Sands from afar.

Billboard advertising Indian Food at Raffles Place

We then went up to the 70th Floor at Raffles City and viewed Singapore from the sky. It was really quite spectacular.

This isa place I didn't know exist, the Indian Muslim Heritage Center which was opened just 2 months ago. Look at the ingenious way they had used these trunks ..

Metal trunks displaying artifacts donated by the Indian Muslim community

..now if only I know how to wire my own metal trunks, imagine all the tiny things I can display in them.

Alex at Telok Ayer Park as a reveler from days of yore

In the short 4 days with Eva and her family, we have had plenty of laughs and many special moments. Like when the children of both culture met, not speaking each other's language and yet having the time of their lives. Or when Eva laughed till she cried and yes, those unforgettable moments when Alex had everyone rolling on the floor with his mimicry.

Eva resting at my home

Even the quiet times were nice, chatting in the living room, sipping ice mango tea.

Eva cooking dinner on 2/7/2011

And with the Spanish meal Eva prepared on the evening before they left for Malaysia, a dinner we shared with the other mini friends, Cindy and Asuka, their stay could not have ended on a more perfect note. But it actually did! With the almost 3 hour conversation the 4 of us mini lovers had. So much so that none of us wanted to leave that night.

Dear Sans, Isn't this an amazing world? Where friends from faraway lands can meet and get to know each other and share their lives and then actually travel to see each other!! Lucky Eva and Lucky you! It certainly looks like you all had a wonderful and memorable time together! And showing visitors around is the only way I learn anything about my own "back yard"! I LOVE that temple!Can it really have been a YEAR already since Rosanna and Walter visited? I am a little shocked at how fast the year went! But I want to thank you for sharing these visits with all your world-wide mini friends.... I feel a little tiny bit as if I was lucky enough to be there with you all! Such a blessing!

The fun and joy you had during these wonderful days is very present - and it's nice to be a silent co-visitor via this post. The most amazing thing for me is that window display with Rosanna and Walter. Must be great to watch good friends who live so many miles away in a shop window every day... ;O)

Wow!!! For us (including Alex and Arnau) has been one of the most wonderful and incredible experiences in our life. We only have great memories of every day and all of you.Fai and you are the best. You both have our love.We felt like at home and we had the best guide tour ever :)Also Fafa and MarG were sweet...and Nathaniel, and Xander, and you mum, and Christel....And the girls!! How amazing they are, still laughing....Besos!!!

Sans, these images suggest that the world is really small and we are all little drops of water in a unique sea ... I'm crying from emotion, everything is wonderful!I want to be there, also ... damn, I can not speak English .. :((ciao!Caterina

What a fun travel diary, Sans! Thank you for introducing me to the blog of Eva. Oh Sans! The lotus flowers are exquisite! Your trip around your home country looks like so much fun! I want to go to the orchid gardens next time I am there.Jennifer

Thanks to Eva's visit I get to take a tour of your fascinating world too! What amazing images, Sans. Of course, the little red bicycle caught my eye, for obvious reasons, but all the details, the Indian food menu, the lotuses, the wall and roof of the Temple, a feast! Is that a roseate spoonbill behind you two at the Bird park? We have some at our local zoo, and I love them. I saw a few once in the wild here, they look like flying flowers. Thank you for the details and the stories-I feel like I'm getting to know a bit about your world, and I'm so happy to be there.

Hi, thanks for your comments, it's amazing to share a hobby with people so far.I love looking at pictures of his travels, and all the ideas drawn from them.In some parts of Spain it is tradition that brides, gifts during the banquet, head pins with pearl-shaped, and in recent years, these pins are decorated with flowers made of Russian porcelain.with them cofeccionan centers, or cushions.At home it is tradition to give to all brides family these pins.a big hug

Betsy :):) I feel very lucky that I have friends who endure terribly long flights to come to our tiny island. You all made me feel so proud of Singapore. Never a day went by without Eva or Alex telling me how impressed they were with my country and Alex has proclaimed on the morning we walked to Chinatown that "I love Singapore" :). I still remember the exact spot he said it..right at the entrance of OUB Centre when we were enquiring about going up to the rooftop bar called 1 Altitude for a view of Singapore from 283 m from sea level. this is their website http://www.1-altitude.com/. I don't think I have felt more proud of my garden city :).

So funny how our love for miniatures have made photographers out of us, even if we are amateurish in our efforts. I want to get a better digital camera after this one goes :). A camera has become so important now, it is almost like my laptop. I will be quite lost without it .

Would you believe that before miniatures, I do not own a camera and never took a picture when I was on holiday? All pictures were taken by friends :).

Thank you Eva :) Here's a thousand kisses and hugs from Singapore. Fai will be in Ipoh on Friday :). You will be in Taman Negara by then I think.

Have you been to the firefly park yet? Tell me all about it. I remembered one flew on Rosanna's finger and it looked like a diamond ring sparkling from her hand in the dark :). Impossible to take good pictures.

Caterina!!! You can , you can ! Language is no barrier. Learn to eat spicy food and you will fit in perfectly :).

It has been so incredible, my journey with My Maharajah's Palace. I can write a 2000 page epic memoir on my experiences , the people I have met and come to love, the importance of minis in my life...things I never imagine mattered , dreams I never thought possible.

The pictures show it all...it must have been wonderful days with Eva!!! Isn't it wonderful how many lovely people we meet...online and sometimes even in real life!!!I enjoyed your story as always Sans :-)

ARLOS!!!~ wahahha so nostalgic ahh~~! reminds me of the time i dragged Dale around the bird park too LMAO i think we took almost the same route, i remember we were both so camera shy, practically none of our pics had humans in it -_-"

Amy, if you look closely , you will see that the red bicycle is part of the trishaw or rickshaw. We call it trishaws over here because these have 3 wheels :). The one in the window is a miniature of the real thing :).

I bashed one last March for my dolls :). You can see it here if you want: http://sansdollhousediaries.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-131-133-our-gondola-trishaw.html but the pictures were badly taken :).

The birds were scarlet ibis , very similiar to your spoonbills (which I saw too at the park but the white ones) You have really sharp eyes! ( http://www.zoochat.com/photo/scarlet-ibis-jurong-birdpark-5396.jpg) You know they are in the same shade of red as the one you seem to favour in your art. Didn't you blog about red once?

Kathy :) I have just realised that I love showing off my country :). Eva and her family are in Kuala Lumpur now and will go into the world's oldest tropical rainforest tomorrow at Taman Negara :) I am sure it will be a wonderful experience for them. :)

Margriet, it is so easy and quick to connect online :). Yesterday, I finally went to facebook using my mini-centric profile . I had 16 friends then. I spent about 45 minutes clicking to add people I knew from blogland and/or friends of mini friends or mini artists whose work I love. This morning, I found that I have 68 friends! So fassssst!

But I love how my friendships in blogland built over time slowly though. Slowly by internet standard of course. I knew about 100 new people a year-following or they following my blog. I chat (through comment) with about 20-30 people regularly and have exchanged gifts with as many :). And now I have met 7 :) and am on email frequently with a couple of them, one of whom I talk more to than my real life friends :):).

Ooooooi ! Our last meeting felt so short I want to do another one SOON!

About bird park, I found out that we can actually go on a group tour at the Fragrant Hotel just down the road from me! S$50 (adult) inclusive of transport! So we did that. But we only had 2 hours so we missed quite a lot of the park. I will definitely go again with my next guest :)

Sans...I've been a part of e-mailgroups and other online groups since 1999 and I've met a lot of miniaturists since then!! A few have become really good friends :-) One very good friend lives only 15 minutes away, but I would probably never have met her if we hadn't met online first!!!With blogging now I'm meeting wonderful people abroad...most of them I will never meet in real life, but I'm thankful for all those nice contacts I have :-)

BTW..I don't really like facebook..but it can be convenient sometimes ;-)

Wow! Even reading this makes me feel as if I was there with you. I am sure this was a visit to remember for all of you. A few years ago we visited Singapore and we have very beautiful memories, especially of the Orchid gardens, the cleanliness, the wonderful food....Thanks for sharing.

Dale, when I posted this picture of Eva in the kitchen, I was of course reminded immediately of the one we took of you in the same kitchen :). hahaha. I wanted to do a compilation posts of all my blogger friends in the kitchen :):). Some day when we are all no longer so self conscious eh?

ME

My Profile

These blogs chronicle my journey into the wonderful world of miniatures.
"The Beginning" is the prequel to it all, the one that triggered my obsession with the weird and wonderful world of doll houses.
"My Maharajah's Palace" is a journal of the trials and tribulations en-route to the building of my Indian Palace.
"Projects, Musings & AOB" is like my workroom or scrapbook of anything minis.